Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte

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Diocese of Charlotte

Dioecesis Carolinana
Cathedral Church of Saint Patrick (Charlotte, North Carolina) - exterior 3 cropped.jpg
Cathedral of St. Patrick
Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte.svg
Coat of arms
Location
Country United States
TerritoryWestern North Carolina North Carolina Vicariates of Albemarle, Asheville, Boone, Gastonia, Greensboro, Hickory, Mecklenburg, Salisbury, Smoky Mountain, Winston-Salem
Ecclesiastical provinceAtlanta
MetropolitanAtlanta
Statistics
Area53,696 km2 (20,732 sq mi)
Population
- Total
- Catholics (including non-members)		(as of 2013)
4,967,591
235,700 (4.7%)
Information
DenominationCatholic
Sui iuris churchLatin Church
RiteRoman Rite
EstablishedNovember 12, 1971
CathedralCathedral of Saint Patrick
Patron saintMary, Mother of God
Current leadership
PopeFrancis
BishopPeter Joseph Jugis
Map
Diocese of Charlotte.jpg
Website
charlottediocese.org

The Diocese of Charlotte (Dioecesis Carolinana) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory of diocese of the Catholic Church in the southern United States. It consists of 46 counties in western North Carolina, which are divided into ten vicariates. Charlotte and the Piedmont Triad are the largest metropolitan areas in the diocese. The Charlotte see is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Atlanta.

The Diocese of Charlotte is led by a bishop who serves as pastor of the Cathedral of Saint Patrick in Charlotte, North Carolina.[1] Peter Joseph Jugis is the current bishop.[2] The diocese is also home to two of the three basilicas in North Carolina, the Basilica of St. Lawrence and the Basilica of Our Lady Help of Christians, and to possibly the largest Catholic congregation in the United States, St. Matthew Catholic Church.

The total population of the area of western North Carolina encompassing the diocese as of 2010 was approximately 4.8 million people. Of this number, 174,689 were registered Catholics (3.6% of the total population), living in a little over 63,000 households. This number does not include an estimated 230,000 undocumented Hispanic or Latino Catholics.[3] The diocese encompasses three main areas of population: the Triad Greensboro, High Point, and Winston-Salem; Charlotte; and the mountains. It covers 20,700 square miles (54,000 km2), and includes 46 counties.

The diocese is home to what's believed to be the largest Catholic congregation in the United States, St. Matthew Catholic Church in Charlotte, which has over 35,000 members.[4]

Vicarates[]

There are ten vicariates–territorial subdivisions of the diocese–named for and administered from Albemarle, Asheville, Boone, Gastonia, Greensboro, Hickory, Mecklenburg, Salisbury, Smoky Mountain and Winston-Salem.[5]

History[]

Pope Pius IX erected the Vicariate Apostolic of North Carolina, taking the entire state of North Carolina from the Diocese of Charleston and making it a suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Baltimore, on 3 March 1868.

Benedictine monks from arrived in the western part of North Carolina acquired land, and started a new foundation in 1876. Pope Leo XIII elevated the priory to an abbey, known as Belmont Abbey, on 19 December 1884,[6] whereupon the monks elected Father Leo Haid as their first abbot. On 4 February 1888, the same pope appointed the abbot also as Apostolic Vicar of North Carolina and titular Bishop of Messine,[7] creating the unusual situation in which an abbot possessed episcopal character when he subsequently received episcopal ordination on 1 July of that year. This arrangement became even more unusual when Pope Pius X designated Belmont Abbey as a territorial abbey, taking Gaston, Catawba, Cleveland, Burke, Lincoln, McDowell, Polk, and Rutherford Counties in western North Carolina—which was in the territory of the Diocese of Charleston—from the Vicariate Apostolic of North Carolina, making the territorial abbey a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, thus created two particular churches united in the person of their ordinary, neither of which was a diocese. This arrangement endured until the death of Abbot/Bishop Haid on 24 July 1924.[8]

On 12 December 1924, Pope Pius XI elevated the Apostolic Vicariate of North Carolina to a diocese with the title of Diocese of Raleigh, making it the first Catholic diocese in the state of North Carolina.[9]

The Catholic Hierarchy web site indicates that Pope Pius XII transferred Catawba, Cleveland, Burke, Lincoln, McDowell, Polk, and Rutherford Counties from the territorial abbey to the Diocese of Raleigh on 17 April 1944 and that Pope John XXIII transferred Gaston County from the territorial abbey to the Diocese of Raleigh in July 1960,[10] reducing the territory of the territorial abbey to the grounds of the abbey itself. Nevertheless, its status as a territorial abbey continued and Abbot Walter Coggin of Belmont Abbey participated in the Second Vatican Council as an ordinary.[11]

On 10 February 1962, Pope John XXIII elevated the Diocese of Atlanta to a metropolitan see, transferring both the Diocese of Raleigh and Belmont Abbey, along with the Diocese of Savannah and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston, to the new province.

Pope Paul VI erected the Diocese of Charlotte, taking the territory of the Diocese of Raleigh that had previously been assigned to Belmont Abbey and making it a suffragan of the Diocese of Atlanta, on 12 November 1971 (though the diocese did not formally come into being until the episcopal ordination and installation of Fr. Michael Begley, a priest in the Diocese of Raleigh, as the first bishop of the new diocese on 12 January 1972.[12] The same pope subsequently transferred the remaining territory of Belmont Abbey and terminated the status of Belmont Abbey as a territorial abbey on 1 January 1977, establishing the present configuration of the diocese.

Bishop Begley served as ordinary of the diocese until his retirement at age 75 in May 1984, after which he served as apostolic administrator.[9] When the new diocese was established, the Catholic population of the area was just over 34,000. [[Pope John Paul II appointed Fr. John Donoghue, a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, as the second Bishop of Charlotte on 6 November, with his installation taking place on 18 December 1984.[12] The population of Catholics in Charlotte continued to grow, and Bishop Donoghue declared in the early 1990s that it would be the Decade of Evangelization.[9] Bishop Donoghue became Archbishop of Atlanta on 22 June 1993 and was succeeded by William G. Curlin, Auxiliary Bishop of Washington and Titular Bishop of Rosemarkie, on 13 April 1994.[12] Bishop Curlin served the Diocese of Charlotte until his retirement on September 10, 2002. At this time, the population of the diocese had grown to approximately 87,000 people. On August 1, 2003, Pope John Paul II appointed Peter J. Jugis, judicial vicar and pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Monroe, North Carolina, as the fourth bishop of Charlotte, which he remains to this day. He was consecrated on October 24, 2003.[12]

Sexual abuse[]

In 2009 Fr. Robert Yurgel, a former priest at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Charlotte, was arrested after pleading guilty to second-degree sexual offense of a minor.[13] Yurgel had sexually abused a fourteen year old altar boy in 1999. He was dismissed from the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin and defrocked from the Catholic priesthood in 2000. A three-year civil lawsuit took place against Yurgel and the Diocese of Charlotte. The case was settled for $1 million in retribution and an additional $40,000 to pay for the victim's therapy. Yurgel was released from prison in August 2016.[14]

On August 14, 2018 a grand jury report from Pennsylvania named 301 priests responsible for allegedly abusing over 1,000 children within six dioceses over the course of seventy years. One of the priests named in the report was Spiritan Fr. Robert Spangenberg, who for a time worked in North Carolina for both the Diocese of Charlotte as well as the Diocese of Raleigh. Spangenberg served as a priest at St. James Catholic Church in Hamlet in the 1990s. David Hains, spokesman for the Diocese of Charlotte, stated that the diocese had not received any information from Spangenberg's Pennsylvania-based order about any concerns regarding his ministry before or during his tenure in Hamlet and that there have been no claims of sexual abuse by Spangenberg from parishioners from North Carolina.[15]

On March 25, 2019 the Diocese announced that its Vicar General and Chancellor, Monsignor Mauricio West, had stepped down after sexual misconduct allegations were made against him. The allegations, which claimed that West engaged in multiple instances of unwanted sexual advances over a two-year period toward an adult student in the 1980s while he was Vice President for Student Affairs at Belmont Abbey College, were found as credible by the Lay Review Board of the Diocese of Charlotte.[16]

On November 1, 2019, both the North Carolina House of Representatives and Senate passed legislation extending the statute of limitations for filing sex abuse lawsuits.[17][18] While the state of North Carolina has no statute of limitations for criminal sex abuse cases, there still are statute of limitations in place for civil sex abuse lawsuits.[19]

On December 30, 2019 Bishop Jugis released a list of fourteen priests credibly accused of sexual abuse in the diocese since 1972.[20][21][22] On March 2, 2020, two more names were added to this list.[23] However, those who were accused of sexual abuse in territory controlled by the Diocese of Charlotte prior to 1972 are not listed in the Diocese of Charlotte's "credibly accused" list, but are listed separately by the Diocese of Charlotte in a list titled "Western North Carolina."[24] Former Catholic clergy who served in the Diocese of Charlotte but were accused of committing sex abuse "elsewhere" are also listed separately as well.[24]

On April 14, 2020, two sex abuse lawsuits were filed against the Diocese of Charlotte, claiming that the Diocese of Charlotte shielded credibly accused priests Fr. Richard Farwell and Fr. Joseph Kelleher.[25] The lawsuits were filed once before, but were dismissed due to the previous statute of limitations.[25]

Older Mass form[]

In December 2007, 14 priests of the diocese attended a five-day workshop on the 1962 version of the Mass, the legitimacy of whose continued public use in certain circumstances was recognized in July of that year. Father Samuel Weber OSB was the first to offer a regularly scheduled Mass in that form in the Diocese of Charlotte since 1969.[citation needed] He celebrated this version in October 2007 at Davis Chapel of Wake Forest University.[26] Bishop Jugis noted that it would take some time, but that the diocese was trying to accommodate those with an attachment to this form of Mass. On the following January 13, the Tridentine Latin Mass or usus antiquor (older form) was celebrated for the first time in nearly 40 years at Our Lady Of Grace Church in Greensboro, with Bishop Peter Jugis attending.

Bishops[]

Bishops of Charlotte[]

  1. Michael Joseph Begley (1971–1984)
  2. John Francis Donoghue (1984–1993), appointed Archbishop of Atlanta
  3. William G. Curlin (1994–2002)
  4. Peter Joseph Jugis (2003–present)

Catholic News Herald[]

For similarly titled publications, see Catholic Herald (disambiguation)
Catholic News Herald
Catholic-News-Herald-31-July-2020.jpg
Catholic News Herald cover (July 31, 2020)
TypeBiweekly
FormatPrint and online
Owner(s)Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte
Founded1991
Headquarters1123 South Church St., Charlotte, N.C. 28203-4003 U.S.A.
Websitewww.catholicnewsherald.com

Catholic News Herald is the official publication of the diocese. It has the slogan "Serving Christ and Connecting Catholics in Western North Carolina." It publishes news from the diocese, general Catholic and world news with a Catholic perspective. The newspaper was established in 1991 and publishes 26 issues per year. It also carries a regular supplement in Spanish within the publication. Besides the print edition, it is available online at https://www.catholicnewsherald.com This publication should be differentiated from the British publication Catholic Herald.

Schools[]

Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools (MACS)[27][]

High schools[]

Grades 6-8[]

  • Holy Trinity Catholic Middle School

Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8[]

  • Our Lady of Assumption Catholic School
  • St. Mark Catholic School

Other Preschools and Elementary Schools[]

  • St. Ann Catholic School (PK, TK-5)
  • St. Gabriel Catholic School (K-5)
  • St. Matthew Catholic School (TK-5)
  • St. Patrick Catholic School (K-5)

Other schools in the diocese[28][]

High schools[]

Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8[]

  • Asheville Catholic School (Asheville, NC)
  • Immaculata Catholic School (Hendersonville, NC)
  • Our Lady of Mercy Catholic School (Winston-Salem, NC)
  • St. Leo Catholic School (Winston-Salem, NC)
  • Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School (High Point, NC)
  • Our Lady of Grace Catholic School (Greensboro, NC)
  • Sacred Heart Catholic School (Salisbury, NC)
  • St. Michael Catholic School (Gastonia, NC)
  • (Greensboro, NC)

Notable parishes[]

Some notable churches within the Diocese of Charlotte include:

See also[]

  • Historical list of the Catholic bishops of the United States
  • List of the Catholic dioceses of the United States
  • List of Roman Catholic archdioceses (by country and continent)
  • List of Roman Catholic dioceses (alphabetical) (including archdioceses)
  • List of Roman Catholic dioceses (structured view) (including archdioceses)

References[]

  1. ^ "Welcome to the Cathedral of Saint Patrick". Cathedral of Saint Patrick. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  2. ^ "Diocese of Charlotte". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  3. ^ "Statistical Overview 2010". Pastoral Report, 2010. Diocese of Charlotte. p. 4. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  4. ^ "Lessons on evangelization from the largest parish in the United States". America Magazine. April 5, 2017.
  5. ^ "Pastoral Report 2010". Diocese of Charlotte. pp. 10–11. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  6. ^ History on Web Site of Belmont Abbey.
  7. ^ Page about Bishop Leo Michael Haid, O. S. B., on Catholic Hierarchy web site.
  8. ^ Ibid.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c "History of the Diocese". Diocese of Raleigh. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  10. ^ Diocese of Raleigh Page on Catholic Hierarchy Web Site
  11. ^ History on Belmont Abbey web site.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Hains, David (2006). Voices and Places of the People of God. Strasbourg: Éditions du Signe. p. 16. ISBN 978-2746817371.
  13. ^ http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/03_04/2008_04_03_Wright_PriestCharged.htm
  14. ^ https://www.wsoctv.com/news/9-investigates/9-investigates-former-charlotte-priest-who-abused-boy-not-listed-as-sex-offender-in-nj/496026724
  15. ^ http://catholicnewsherald.com/news/90-news/local/3392-allegations-of-sexual-misconduct-by-priests-cover-up-by-church-leaders-have-people-talking
  16. ^ http://www.fox46charlotte.com/news/local-news/catholic-diocese-of-charlotte-chancellor-leaves-after-credible-sexual-misconduct-allegation
  17. ^ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/us/north-carolina-sexual-assault-loophole.html
  18. ^ https://webservices.ncleg.net/ViewBillDocument/2019/6791/0/S199-PCCS15432-TV-5
  19. ^ https://www.wbtv.com/2019/10/31/nc-lawmakers-pass-bill-extend-statute-limitations-child-sex-crime-victims/
  20. ^ http://catholicnewsherald.com/88-news/fp/5296-accountability
  21. ^ http://catholicnewsherald.com/88-news/fp/5298-bishop-peter-jugis-announces-release-of-list-of-credibly-accused-clergy
  22. ^ https://accountability.charlottediocese.org/
  23. ^ Delia, Sarah (March 2, 2020). "Charlotte Diocese Adds 2 New Names To List Of Clergy 'Credibly Accused' Of Abuse". WFAE. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
  24. ^ Jump up to: a b To the People of God of Western North Carolina Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, Accessed September 18, 2020
  25. ^ Jump up to: a b https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/2-lawsuits-alleging-sexual-abuse-filed-against-diocese-charlotte/FATGENIKRBA4ZAXHMAIMWK3YZU/
  26. ^ "5 October: Holy Mass (1962) at Wake Forest Univ. in Diocese of Charlotte". Fr. Z's Blog. 4 October 2007. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  27. ^ "Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools". Diocese of Charlotte. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  28. ^ "Diocese of Charlotte Catholic Schools". Diocese of Charlotte. Retrieved 2016-02-26.

External links[]

Coordinates: 35°13′14″N 80°51′15″W / 35.22056°N 80.85417°W / 35.22056; -80.85417

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